Talking Simpsons - Das Bus With Louis Peitzman

In the spirit of how you all talked about the traumas and bad associations you have with this episode, I thought I should share mine! So there was this English teacher at my high school who loved The Simpsons, which was seen as very radical since I went to a private, religious school. The thing is though was that we was also a total dude-bro. Still, most kids thought he was the coolest teacher...not that he had much competition. Anyways, I never liked him because his overall attitude always struck me as the type of young teacher who thought he could just coast by on this very artificial, inauthentic fandom. I had to take a British Lit class and by the time I was able to pick my classes, his was the only section with any open seats. Sure enough, we read "Lord of the Flies" and when we were done, he had us watch this episode, not to learn anything about it or discuss how the episode treats the story differently or why that's important or even interesting. To me, it was just another example of him "showing off" how #relatable he was. It may not be fair to the episode, but because of him, I just don't like it.

Rin Martens

On the subject of Arbys - Yes, anyone would agree that it's never anyone's first choice. The exception is however my girlfriend's dad. It's not only his first choice, but he has gone MILES out of his way to eat at Arby's!

Alex Kazanas

This! It was totally ahead of its time.

nina matsumoto

Lord of the Flies is actually a really excellent read despite the sort of bad Twilight Zone synopsis you could give it. Part of the reason it turns out the monster is man is because it was written a a criticism of a popular style of British novel in the post-war era. Basically the books featured plucky young British boys put into harrowing situations and taking them on with a characteristic stiff upper lip. Golding found these books dishonest and ridiculous and set out to write a story that he felt was truer to human nature. In so doing he delivered a treatise on what we call toxic masculinity today.

Ron Sterling

I am resenting calling the ending of Lord of the Flies a deus ex machina! A huge fire set on the island by one of the boys (in order to flush out and kill another boy) is what leads a naval ship to see the smoke and discover them. They don't just come out of nowhere. Fire is an important theme in the book! It represents both hope and destruction and the fire meant to destroy ends up saving their lives! (Hello I love this book and have strong opinions)

nina matsumoto

When I was in high school, we read Lord of the Flies in freshman English (2000-01). Before reading the book, I had no idea that this episode was based on any specific story. I just assumed it was a send up of a show like Gilligan's Island, which I had seen in reruns during lazy summer trips to my grandparents' house, my only regular exposure to cable television growing up. Of course it became obvious immediately after we began the book that this episode was based on it, so my friends – who were also big Simpsons fans – and I asked our teacher if we could watch the episode in class after we finished the book. She was excited that we had made a connection between literature and pop culture, and eagerly told us that, yes we could watch the episode if we brought in a copy. None of us had an equivalent of the Gilbert Family Tapes, and this was a pre-Simpsons DVDs world (Season 1 would not be released until fall 2001, let alone Season 9), so we were at the mercy of the rerun schedule of our local Fox affiliate. The Simpsons gods were with us, though, and that same night we asked to watch it in class, the episode aired as the second part of our daily back-to-back Simpsons block from 5-6pm! Fortunately, I had popped in a blank VHS and was recording. At the end of our unit on Lord of the Flies our teacher held true to her word, and we watched the episode in class. My love of the Simpsons was at its peak during those years, and the serendipity of the entire situation makes this one of my fondest memories of high school.

While I appreciate Henry's explanation of how this episode could be seen as a downward turning point in the show's quality, I think the ending is the most justified bail out they've had in the series. As you mentioned, Lord of the Flies itself has a Deus Ex Machina ending of the main character miraculously saved by a sailor stopping at the island at the exact right moment. You can question the judgement of parodying a novel from the 50s on a show whose main audience was children, but the source material requires a bail out ending in its parody. Henry's suggestion of having Otto come rescue the kids might make more sense from a storytelling perspective but does it really work better as parody? The best way to make fun of a bad, bail out ending is to make an even worse bail out which is exactly what they did. Maybe this did lead to more shrug endings in the future but similar to your exoneration of Principal and the Pauper, Das Bus should get a pass for a masterful middle finger to William Golding.

Neil L

I'm not the biggest fan of this episode but quote it all the time anyway. "In conclusion, [blank] is a land of contrasts" in particular became such a common quote for me I forgot where it was from until I rewatched this episode recently. Definitely a point in favor of the quality of the writing staff that even a weaker episode could still have great moments.

SomeBloke

There was talk somewhat recently of doing an all-female film remake of 'Lord of the Flies,' which to me seemed a) pointless because this property is not a hot commodity and b) would need a lot of reworking to be about the different ways girls end up bullying each other because of their socialization, which made me realize 'Mean Girls' is almost a comedic, female-centered take on LotF.

Dylan (batmanboy11) Freitag

I always loved the ending with the belief that it was Moe in his flying machine saving the kids. I'm glad that idea was brought up. I get disliking the impact and direction it leads the show down further. I think still going forward the next few seasons there are still surprising many frequently quoted bits even though people may say they dont like the next 3 or so seasons much. But amusingly, I was just listening to Retronauts latest Namco titles episode and Jeremy ended it with a, in conclusion Namco is a land of contrast line, keeping the reference fresh.

Mark Lee Marcheschi

Wow, in retrospect they referenced this ad on MST3K CONSTANTLY.

Bob Mackey

I love this episode, always have. The ending is hilarious, despite being a huge cop-out of course.

Hampus Bystrom

In the scene with the Bill Gates shakedown, Gates looks like Sideshow Bob with a bowl cut and glasses. Visual coding of someone smart but destined to always reveal his secret deceitfulness??

Hannah Culik-Baird

“Tales from the days of onioned belts.” As I listen to this awesome series of podcasts, I have come to grips with the fact that I have become Grampa Simpson. Allow me to regale you with the story of “Maize.” Back in 1976, during the bicentennial days of american flag striped bell-bottoms (yes, they were real) and greasy faces, Mazola Margarine initiated an ad campaign that by today’s standards would be considered in horribly bad taste, if not out and out racist. It showed a young native American woman standing in a corn field describing how corn was referred to as Maize in the days prior to the European genocide of the the indigenous people. This was all in an effort to sell a horrifically synthetic, and trans fat laden product to Americans that had been convinced they were now eating healthy. And now, to your horror, please partake of the Mazola Margarine campaign that fueled hack comics for years thereafter. I present to you, “Maize.” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuOlD0JZhM4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuOlD0JZhM4</a> PS . . . Yes, I vividly remember watching this, first hand, in the day . . . as was the style at the time.

RyoGeo